Tom Zsolt
Tom Zsolt
Canadian photographer, Tom Zsolt has been documenting landscapes, towns, and life across North America for 50 years. His exhibition, Ontario Gothic, during Contact ’98 in Toronto, caught the imagination of publisher Kearns, Vander Meersch & Boulton, who in 1999 published County Matters, Zsolt’s first book. Showing the land, villages and people of rural Ontario, Country Matters was short listed for the Roloff Beny Award for the best book of photography by a Canadian published that year.
Zsolt’s work was selected for a 2009 exhibition in Beijing, followed by a 10-city tour in China, titled Canadian Cameras at Work. Zsolt’s photograph Niagara Falls, depicting Asian tourists being photographed before Niagara Falls in winter, was selected as the poster image for the exhibition.
As part of Contact 2015, The Georgina Centre for Arts & Culture hosted Reluctant Subject, Portraits by Tom Zsolt exhibiting 40 years of his portraits, which was followed by the release of the book of the same title.
The Georgina Gallery (GCAC) selected seven of Zsolt’s images in 2023 for their exhibition and literary contest 7 STORIES. The exhibit, which featured very large photographs, was accompanied by release of the book 7 STORIES, An Anthology, which included Zsolt’s photos with over 80 short stories and essays.
Tom Zsolt lectures on photography. His work has appeared on the cover of novels and in magazines and is collected by private individuals, corporations and institutions including The Image Centre at TMU (formerly Ryerson University), OMERS, Royal LePage and Borealis Capital. The largest collection of his photography is housed in the permanent collection of the Georgina Centre for Arts and Culture in Sutton, Ontario.
Tom Zsolt lives in rural Ontario in the Town of Georgina, with his wife Jennifer who is an artistic painter. Besides photography, Zsolt is passionate about sustainability, rural living and enjoys a brood of dogs, chickens and horses on their farm.
BOOKS
Agricultural once dominated Canada and Ontario was once a peaceful rural domain. The structures, tools and creatures dotting the landscape still reflect this reality. Tom Zsolt captures the strange visual balance between old village churches standing among the clutter of suburban strip malls and gas stations. These 100 images aren’t a requiem but instead a record the changing land, people and lifestyles in rural Ontario. Country Matters was well received by the public and the media and was short listed as one of five finalists for the Roloff Beny Award in 1999 for the best book of photography by a Canadian, published that year.
Praise for Country Matters:
Tom Zsolt’s photograhs capture the link that connects the past to the present, giving the viewer an image of the privileged moment of transition that usually exsists only in the blink of an eye.
KATE BROWN, Artist, Joyce Wieland Protegé Honouree and Director Canadian Mantle Project
Zsolt’s images express the humanity and humour of country living in ways the written word never could. There’s plenty to think about as you turn the pages of this fine book… lots to smile about too.
ALAN BEATON, Reviewer for Natioal Post and author of “A Better Place”
Old walls stand in small Ontario towns bearing witness to our past. Tom Zsolt has put just enough of himself into his photographs to help us contemplate where we have come from in our headlong rush toward tommorow.
JEREMY TAYLOR, Photographer and author of “Intersections”.
IN APRIL 1945 a Halifax aircraft of the Royal Air Force was shot down over Norway, while on a secret mission in support of the Norwegian Resistance. All save one of the crew were killed. The aircraft plunged into Lake Mjøsa, one of the deepest lakes in Europe, if not in the world. For fifty years she lay there almost forgotten, until a group of Canadian Air Force veterans came seeking a memorial to their comrades who had died in the Second World War. They heard of the Halifax down in the lake, raised her, and restored her until she was again pristine in every detail. Special photography of the restoration and select portraits by Tom Zsolt. Published in November 2017.
Canadian Art Cards has published 42 of Tom Zsolt’s images including landscapes, documentary and people from across North America. These fine reproductions were available in galleries and card shops including the National Gallery in Ottawa, the McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg and the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography in Ottawa.